Craps Strategy - This is how to win!

Hopefully, you've been spending a bit of time reading through the information on this site and you're ready for some craps strategy now. If you haven't already, we encourage you to read the sections on craps rules and craps betting, as well as the pages on learning craps, and the craps table layout. These pages will give you some necessary background before embarking on any craps strategy. If you've already read those pages, then welcome! We hope you find this information useful for making you a better craps player.

Craps strategy is something that's pretty hard to come by. That is, it's hard to find one that really works. If you're smart, you'll stay away from any craps strategy that says it can make you a millionaire in no time flat. There's a reason why casinos make so much money. Does the phrase “The house always wins” come to mind? Well, it's pretty well true. That's why they're so rich. Sure, you might be able to make some short term gains, and maybe come out way ahead of where you started on occasion, but in the long run, the house DOES always win. That's why this page is devoted to a craps strategy that will help you hold on to your bankroll over the long term, while giving you the opportunity to make some big wins here and there. So our advice to you is: Play Smart!

The smartest way to treat a craps strategy is to look at it from the point of view of how much can you lose. That's right, not how much can you win, but how much can you afford to lose. That's the smart part of this advice page. If you start losing, and your “lose limit” is passed, you simply must walk away. The dice are unpredictable enough that there's really no way of knowing when you'll win again. It's as simple as that.

As far as which bets are the smart ones, it's simple. All you have to do is look at the house edge, and you'll see that the ones where you can lose the LEAST are the Pass, Don't Pass, Come, and Don't Come because they give the house the smallest edge at about 1.4%. If you think about the different bets as how much they “give away” (to the house, that is), you'll see that this is the smartest craps strategy around. Here's a list of other common craps bets and their house edge:

Field – 5.6%

Big 6/Big 8 – 9.1%

Horn – 12.5%

Craps 2/Craps 12 – 13.9%

Any 7 – 16.7%

As you can see, you could lose a lot of cash in just a few bad bets on any of those. OK. So you might just be saying: “What's the point in putting money on these dinky bets?”. Well there is a point. A big one that you may not know, whether you've played craps before or not. The fact is that with the Pass, Don't Pass, Come, and Don't Come bets, you can cut the house edge almost in half by using Odds. You can either buy odds on the “right” bets (Pass and Come) or lay odds on the “wrong” bets (Don't Pass, Don't Come). Where are these bets on the table layout? Good question. They're generally not advertised for the simple fact that the house doesn't want to make it easier for you to take away their edge. These are hidden bets that can make a huge difference in how much you might lose (and win!) at the craps table. The reason that odds can make such a big difference is that the house has no edge on odds. That's right! 0% house edge.

The way to place an odds bet is to simply place an additional bet alongside your original Pass or Don't Pass bet. As a craps strategy, this works by cutting the house edge, which means you lose less overall but can win more at the same time. Most land-based casinos limit the odds bet to what they call “Single Odds”. That means that the most you can place as an odds bet is the same amount as your original bet. With online craps, you might be lucky enough to find an online casino that allows Double Odds. If you can place that kind of bet, then using this craps strategy can cut the house edge to around 0.6%! So generally speaking, if you can afford to, you should make the biggest odds bet that you can, since this will cut the house edge by as much as possible.